The present invention relates to a vehicle door handle.
Vehicle door handles are known comprising a connecting structure housed at least partly in the door, and a grip hinged to the connecting structure; and, to activate the door opening mechanism, the grip is pulled by the user to rotate it about its hinge axis.
The above grip movement, however, may at times be caused, not by the user voluntarily opening the vehicle door, but in response to impact on the side of the vehicle, thus accidentally opening the door and seriously endangering the safety of the driver and passengers.
Solutions are known in which accidental opening of the door is prevented by inertial masses inside the handle, and which act permanently on the grip in opposition to the opening force. Such masses, however, on the one hand, increase the inertia of the grip, thus making voluntary opening of the door by the user more difficult, and, on the other, have the drawback of keeping the distressed door closed, but not always those on the opposite side of the vehicle.
Moreover, known inertial masses are sized according to, and are only effective up to, a maximum predicted impact intensity, beyond which efficiency is gradually reduced. To increase efficiency, it is therefore necessary to act on the mass itself, which, over and above a given limit, however, would be excessively large and incompatible with the space available.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a handle designed to provide a straightforward, low-cost solution to the problems posed by the known state of the art.
According to the present invention, there is provided a vehicle door handle comprising a supporting structure connected to a door of a vehicle; a movable grip hinged to said supporting structure; and an inertial-mass safety device for preventing movement of said grip in the event of lateral impact on the vehicle; characterized in that said device comprises a slide movable between a forward retaining position positively engaging a seat formed in said grip, and a withdrawn rest position permitting free movement of the grip; and an inertial mass separate from the slide and movable, in the event of lateral impact, to move said slide into said forward position.
This therefore provides for obtaining a vehicle door handle, which prevents accidental opening of the door in the event of impact on the side of the vehicle, and which at the same time in no way affects normal voluntary opening of the door.